AME's Grand Jury members are strategic, innovative, analytical, critical thinkers, and creative storytellers dedicated to ensuring brand awareness and equity, these qualities embody AME's esteemed jury. Serving as emissaries of effectiveness, The 2025 AME jury panel are recognized globally as industry leaders and award-winning marketers, they ensure that every entry submitted to the AME Awards is evaluated with the utmost care and consideration.

2025 AME Grand Jury member Amanda Brohman is a PR Strategist at NORD DDB and works across channels and markets to develop integrated campaign strategies that tap into cultural contexts and engage target groups in new and effective ways. She also heads DDB’s department Nord ECHO: where community insights, true social and influencer marketing are used to to help break brands into pop culture and increase their relevance in a modern media landscape. She is also a recurring columnist PR expert in some of Sweden’s biggest media outlets.

In the interview below Amanda shares her strategic perspective on influencer marketing, storytellings role in the effectivenesss of a campaign and what qualites embody award-winning campaigns.

AME Awards: From your perspective as a creative strategist, what standout qualities define award-winning, effective advertising today?

Amanda Brohman: Advertising that puts emotional connection at the center and prioritizes cultural relevance. Both these factors are becoming increasingly important in the cluttered media landscape of today and we see that advertising that can move people with relatability and emotions is the advertising that lingers – and give good results.

AME Awards: Why are effectiveness competitions like the AME Awards essential for measuring impact and industry growth?

Amanda Brohman: They give brands a clear message that good communication that give results trumps communication that may or may not be creatively nice but won’t give brands the long-term success they need. There’s nothing better than a brilliant idea that also gives tangible results and having competitions that reward both are crucial for our industry to evolve, especially in a time where it’s increasingly hard to break through the noise.

AME Awards: In your experience, what role does storytelling play in the effectiveness of a campaign? Are there elements of narrative or structure that make campaigns especially memorable or impactful?

Amanda Brohman: Storytelling is becoming more crucial than ever in effectful advertising, and as a PR and Social strategist I see increasingly how it dominates social media, where creative and intriguing storytelling is prioritized by the algorithm – ahead of polished and perfect content, which was the case a few years ago. It’s driving engagement on TikTok and can spur anything and anyone into a viral phenomenon. Brands who want to become and stay relevant in the years to come, should really investigate how they can utilize storytelling to drive effect and gain fame.

AME Awards: How are brands reimagining influencer marketing to be more impactful? Any examples of partnerships or approaches that have been proven most effective?

Amanda Brohman: I’ve been working daily with influencer marketing for the past 5+ years and in my time doing so I’ve seen a radical shift from very straight-on product focused ads via influencers, to integrated marketing campaigns where influencers are used more as a long-term catalyst to drive trustworthiness and true engagement. Having said this, I still see too many brands who still not really tapping into influencer marketing’s full potential, and either just doing these very obvious “in your face” product influencer placements and inauthentic collaborations that feel bought.

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective channels we can use as modern marketers, if we use it correctly, but there is still a lot to learn within our industry. But at the end of the day, people believe more in people than in brands. So, if we can take that insight and apply it to smart influencer campaigns, I am certain the creative excellence of tomorrow’s advertising could reach entirely new heights